Monday, February 28, 2011

More, please

UNWatch, an estimable organization has a blog called Hall of Shame and it is uniformly good reading. Their latest entry is on a new report about to be adopted by the UN Human Rights Council that hails Libya's human rights record even though the Council finally voted to suspend the country from its ranks (though whether that was because of Gaddafi's behaviour or because he had been overthrown remains unclear).

The Summary of the proceedings of the review process states:

During the interactive dialogue, statements were made by 46 delegations. A number of delegations commended the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for the preparation and presentation of its national report, noting the broad consultation process with stakeholders in the preparation phase. Several delegations also noted with appreciation the country’s commitment to upholding human rights on the ground. Additional statements, which could not be delivered during the interactive dialogue owing to time constraints, will be posted on the extranet of the universal periodic review when available.

On page 14 of the report one can find all sorts of recommendations by other countries, most of them rejected by Libya as being unnecessary. Here are Libya's own official comments on the subject.

Far from wanting to abolish this sort of thing - some of the most oppressive regimes of the world belonging to the UNHRC - I want to see more of it. Anything that shows up the UN for the sick joke that it is I welcome. Unfortunately, it takes a long time between general indignation and action with a good deal of shoulder-shrugging in between. The same seems to be true about the EU, the ECHR and foreign aid.